Membership and Applying - Winding Path Initiative

Membership Costs

There is no annual membership fee for joining the Winding Path Initiative. Read about Game Support Types if you’re curious how attendance based membership fees work.

You must apply and be approved for membership in WPI. Each time you attend a WPI event, your membership is extended to 6 months after the event. If you do not attend a WPI event in a year’s time, your membership will expire. If at some point you are unable to attend WPI events for a long period of time, but wish to remain an active member, you can renew your membership for a nominal fee. Otherwise, your membership will be reactivated the next time you attend a WPI Event — no need to reapply, just come play again!

Membership Expectations and Responsibilities

The goal of the Winding Path Initiative is to provide a safe, friendly, and welcoming community that promotes high quality Parlor LARP games. To that end, members of WPI need to be able to behave in a manner that fits those goals.

WPI Members are expected to be friendly and welcoming to other WPI members. Take extra care with new players.
WPI Members are expected to be able to accept constructive feedback from WPI officers and members, and provide the same to WPI officers and other members if there are disagreements.
Aggressive and/or Harassing Behavior will not be tolerated towards any member or officer.
Disruptive outbursts will not be tolerated, in person or online. While we know that everyone has their bad moments, we must all make our best effort to remove ourselves from the situation when we need to cool down, and speak to our officers when we need assistance, instead of lashing out at others.

Understand that behavior tolerated in other LARP groups will not necessarily be accepted in WPI. Officers will attempt to advise members that appear to be having trouble meeting the membership guidelines, but members should expect few warnings for inappropriate behavior. The safety and comfort of our membership is more important than the ability of any single member to remain in the organization.

Membership Process

Normally, your membership process starts after you attend a WPI Event. This normally is only bypassed when forming a new Chapter — the Chapter Owner and Chapter officers are able to work directly with the Club Manager to begin their memberships. If a new Chapter is bringing in existing games, your Chapter Owner may inform you you can apply for membership based on your experience with those games (your Chapter Owner will discuss this with the Club Manager). You may also be told this requirement is waived if you have been in contact with the WPI Board regarding volunteering for a position or event. If you have another pressing reason for applying for membership before attending a WPI Event, please explain in the application below.
After attending a WPI Event, you can apply for membership using the form below. Please provide us with the WPI Chapter you attended and the Chapter you plan on being your local Chapter. We will be in contact with your Chapter officers while we review your membership.
While you can apply for membership after attending a WPI Event, you must apply for membership before 90 days have passed since your first event in order to participate in further events. This can be done at the event if needed.
After applying, your membership must be approved within 90 days in order to continue participating in WPI Events. Membership review will normally be handled quickly. If there is a delay, it is likely in waiting for feedback from the player or the Chapter Owner.

Note: It is possible for membership to be denied. This is usually based on poor behavior occurring at or related to WPI Events, or known poor behavior in the LARP Community outside of WPI, especially if players have shown a penchant for harassment, bullying, ignoring player boundaries, or other toxic behavior. Based on knowledge of prior poor behavior, it is possible for membership to be denied to a player before they even apply. If an applying member has displayed concerning behavior in the past, the Chapter Owner or Club Manager may have a discussion with them regarding acceptable behavior in the club before a membership decision is made. If membership is denied, the WPI Club Manager will inform you whether you can be considered for membership at a later date. Once membership is denied, you can no longer attend WPI Events

Your Name (required)

We need your full name for your application, so we can properly track all our social club members. If you want us to put an abbreviated or different version of your name into our system for other members to see, just note your preferred name in the application section below.

Your Email (required)

Application. Please see the questions and fill them out completely.
1. Are you at least 18 years old? 2. Which WPI Event or Events have you attended? Please list the Chapters, Games, and dates (if you don't remember the date, that's OK — we'll look it up in the check-in records). If your only experience was at a larger event, please tell us which event. If you haven't attended any WPI events, please tell us why you're applying. 3. Which WPI Chapter do you plan to be your home chapter? If you're not sure, where are you located? 4. How did you get started LARPIng? If WPI is your first time LARPing, just tell us how you found out about us. 5. How do you like your WPI experience so far? 6. What about LARPing most interests you? Two questions that don't affect your application itself: a. Would you like to be added to our Non-Profit Club Announcements mailing list? This will used for official club business regarding member notifications, such as annual meetings or membership votes. You'll be able to unsubscribe at any time. b. While we need your full name for tracking as explained above, do you have a different name you'd prefer us to use when we add your membership to our portal in the future?
What is the four letter acronym of the hobby this club is for?